The neural basis of body form and body action agnosia.
Visual analysis of faces and nonfacial body stimuli brings about neural activity in different cortical areas. Moreover, processing body form and body action relies on distinct neural substrates. Although brain lesion studies show specific face processing deficits, neuropsychological evidence for defective recognition of nonfacial body parts is lacking. By combining psychophysics studies with lesion-mapping techniques, we found that lesions of ventromedial, occipitotemporal areas induce face and body recognition deficits while lesions involving extrastriate body area seem causatively associated with impaired recognition of body but not of face and object stimuli. We also found that body form and body action recognition deficits can be double dissociated and are causatively associated with lesions to extrastriate body area and ventral premotor cortex, respectively. Our study reports two category-specific visual deficits, called body form and body action agnosia, and highlights their neural underpinnings.
Moro
Valentina
V
Dipartimento di Psicologia e Antropologia Culturale, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy. valentina.moro@univr.it
Urgesi
Cosimo
C
Pernigo
Simone
S
Lanteri
Paola
P
Pazzaglia
Mariella
M
Aglioti
Salvatore Maria
SM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000377:Agnosia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011601:Psychophysics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*